Cerro Marconi Norte (ca. 2200m).

General description.

The group of mountains that close the Electrico valley are called Marconi range and were christened by Alberto Maria De Agostini in honor of the Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), an Italian electrical engineer who was partly responsible for the development of wireless telegraphy and was also the President of the “Regia Accademia d’Italia”, which partly supported De Agostini’s expedition. The river that flows down valley from those peaks that are named after an electrical engineer was fittingly named Rio Electrico.

The first to view these peaks were the members of the 1916 Buenos Aires Sociedad Cientifica Alemana expedition, led by Alfredo Kolliker, who during the first ever traverse across the Hielo Continental were able to see the western flank of what later became Cordón Marconi. More practical and less eager to celebrate European heroes and sponsors than De Agostini, they named the mountain after its likeliness, calling it Cerro El Cajon (box peak) after the square shape that Marconi Central has when viewed from the west.

The Marconis suffer the same fate that most non-granite peaks succumb to in this area, which is that they receive little to no attention. There have been a number of ascents of Marconi Norte, but Marconi Central remains unclimbed and Marconi Sur has but one ascent. This happens in the Paine massif as well, where beautiful Paine Grande has only had two ascents in 50 years, while well trodden routes on the North Tower get a handful of repeats per year.

Climbing history.

In February of 1952 Argentine Alain Cazaux, Jean Guthmann, Jean Vincent Pillet, Carlos Stegmann and Gerardo Watzl made the first ascent of the peak via its north face, approaching from Paso Marconi. They were part of a big expedition that also did an east to west crossing of the Icecap. There have been a handful of ascents of this peak since.

Bibliography.
Anuario CAB 1953 p. 12-14.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Cerro Marconi Norte and Central -

northeast face